Nissan's proprietary product quality assurance system ensures the quality of every step, from its suppliers to the manufacturing processes.
Covering 53 basic criteria and 387 detailed-criteria for evaluation
Each component from our suppliers represents the end-product of a complex manufacturing process - including planning and development validation, turning design blueprints into prototypes, performance testing to the final mass production. Integral to the supplier assurance is the ANPQP*, a system for procuring precision-built components. The ANPQP requires quality tests to be conducted on every single component, which can cover up to 387 criteria depending on the component. The more complex the component, the more closely Nissan must work with the supplier to ensure its quality standards are met.
- * ANPQP stands for Alliance New Product Quality Procedure. Based on ISO/TS 16949, which specifies the quality system standards for automotive products and components, the ANPQP is Nissan's internal quality standards to ensure the delivery of high-quality components from its suppliers.
Ensuring quality is of utmost importance. Nissan has created an evaluation system for new suppliers.
A strong partnership must be based on mutual trust and respect and one where both partners move forward together. For the ANPQP to succeed, we first need to determine the supplier's ability to provide and respond to feedback.
Nissan has created a system called ASES*. The ASES system contains 240 evaluation criteria to determine if a component is rated “flawless” or “defective”, and helps to identify problems immediately at the manufaturing stage. These strict quality evaluations are performed by specially-trained evaluators who have been legitimately certified. Through the implementation of these quality systems, Nissan is able to ensure the consistent quality of its sourced components.
- * ASES, the Alliance Supplier Evaluation Standard, is used to evaluate if a vendor qualifies to become a suitable supplier. Based on the evaluation of 240 criteria at five stages, we rank potential vendors as either A, B, C or D, and measure them against the top-ranked industry suppliers.
To maintain the consistency in quality, Nissan periodically carries out inspections of its suppliers
After the implementation of the ANPQP, Nissan employs a system of checks to ensure that its suppliers maintain a superior level of quality assurance. Nissan continually monitors its suppliers through a supplier scorecard that encompasss diagnostics measurements such as delivery quality and market quality. Another measure is through the ASAS-P, or Alliance Supplier Audit Standard in Production, that requires the inspection of the suppliers' factories. Nissan's proprietary inspection system encompass 170 criteria designed to examine the quality control systems at a supplier's factory and how well it works. These two periodic inspections ensure our suppliers adhere to a system that consistently delivers superior components, and drive our suppliers to continually improve on quality.
- Supplier scorecards
- Every year Nissan issues scorecard assessments of all its suppliers, and their overall average scores are improving year after year. Suppliers are also informed of their company's current ranking, and the top achievers are rewarded.
